Plum-Ucci's (The Body of Christopher Creed
) slow-paced chiller succeeds largely by shape-shifting, one moment resembling a mournful dirge, the next a supernatural thriller, the next a tightly woven mystery. In the opening chapter, nine-year-old Evan Barrett hears the ship-to-shore transmission from his sea-faring parents on the night they are claimed by a giant storm; he believes they are killed by The She (short for "she-devil of the hole"), a fabled dark force that occasionally swallows entire freighters in the watery canyon off the coast of South Jersey near the Barretts' home. Flash forward to Evan at 17. Living with his older brother Emmett, a philosophy grad student, Evan has pretty much come to terms with his parents' death—until the head of his Catholic school sends him to visit his classmate, a spoiled rich girl named Grey, who has been hospitalized for psychiatric illness following her role in a drowning the previous summer. Knowing that Evan, too, has heard the shrieks of The She, Grey has asked for his help. Emmett dampens Evan's investigation with evidence to suggest that their parents' disappearance may have had more to do with illegal shipments than anything otherworldly. The dialogue is dense and wordy, but so intelligent that readers will enjoy it. The finale resolves the tension without answering all the questions neatly, aptly transferring to readers the sense of loss that Evan himself feels. Ages 14-up. (Oct.)
